July is National Hot Dog Month. Well, of course it is. I mean, no other month is as hot dog intensive as July — from Independence Day celebrations through the All-Star Game through the lazy days at the beach and the lake, July defines the dog. And the dog defines July.

We love our hot dogs. But it’s worth noting that the hot dog has not always been a hot dog.

Though the sausage, of which the hot dog is merely one of many variations, has been around since before the beginning, what we call a hot dog today can be traced back to the early 1500s, when sausage makers in the German city of Frankfurt am Main began producing a cured pork and bacon sausage that was referred to geographically as a frankfurter.

By the 19th century, a longer, thinner version of the frankfurter had been created by a Viennese butcher named J.G. Lahner, a sausage that was (more geography) the wiener.

Credit also belongs to a German immigrant named Antoine Feuchtwanger, who came up with the idea of putting those wieners into rolls back in the 1880s, in his adopted city of St. Louis. By the beginning of the 20th century, wieners in rolls were part of American life, with the fad of “wienie roasts” spreading from coast to coast.

By 1906, wieners were being served at New York’s Polo Grounds, thanks to the inspired vision of Harry Stevens, the ballpark’s director of catering, who heated the rolls, added mustard and relish, and exhorted his vendors to call the resulting sandwich a “red hot.”

The final apotheosis of the frankfurter/wiener into a hot dog came just one year later. The story (perhaps mythic, perhaps apocryphal, but certainly appealing) is that the name owes its birth to a Hearst sports cartoonist named Tad Dorgan, who had a penchant for drawing talking dachshund/sausages, a not-very-subtle jibe based on the rumor that cheaply made wieners were filled with dog meat.

He called his talking sausage a “hot dog.” And the name was soon applied to the red hots sold in ballparks, and at the beach.

So pervasive did the name become that in 1913, the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce banned the term “hot dog” from all signs at the resort, insisting they be referred to instead as “Coney Islands.”

But the name stuck, and by the 1920s hot dog stands could be found in every one of the then 48 states. But mostly, they could be found in Chicago, which is almost certainly the Hot Dog Capitol of America.

A guidebook on my shelves, titled “Hog Dog Chicago,” is a listing of the 200 best hot dog stands in the city, though the book does point out that there are at least 10 times that many to choose from.

Here in Southern California, hot dogs have long lagged behind hamburgers in popularity, which are really the quintessential Los Angeles fast-food dish. (Except that so are tacos. And let’s not forget pizza.) We are far better defined by the large, gloppy, gooey, mushy, sloppy burgers created at Fatburger and Tommy’s, than by the messy, dripping, oozing dogs served at Pink’s or Oki Dog.And this is a pity, for there’s a grand satisfaction that comes from the sheer crunch of biting into a good dog that a burger just never manages to offer.

Mind you, I’m a great fan of both; but I also tend to feel an atavistic need for a dog — sometimes more than my primal need for a burger. And where do I go?

What follows is a short list of local dogs that are sure to satisfy — especially when covered with mustard, relish, kraut and chili.

This is not your grandad’s Wienerschnitzel, not by a long shot. Some of the branches are focused on food only. But a large number are also Biergartens, with extensive lists of craft beers to match with your smoked-bacon wrapped Scott Baioli Dog, and your avocado and arugula topped Sooo Cali Dog.

There’s a pork kielbasa called a Pig Lebowski, topped with Haus Slaw. You can get chili cheese Tater Tots on the side. You got to love this place!

But locals who have been going to The Hat since before the beginning (that’s 1951), also know this is a fine destination for a classic hot dog or chili dog, consumed with monster orders of chili fries, topped with tomato and a pickle.

I guess if you ask, you can get your dog topped with pastrami. A combo that will allow you to die happy.

• La SinBala (651 W. Duarte Road, Arcadia, 626-446-0886): This being the San Gabriel Valley, I’d be remiss to not include the Chinese take on the hot dog.

La SinBala would seem, at first glance, to be an Asian novelty restaurant, kind of like the place where the servers dress up like extras from a John Ford movie. With 21 sausage preparations, and 102 drinks — well, it might not seem all that serious.

The sausage is properly called xiang chang, which I’m told means “fragrant.”

You can pick up packages of the sausage to take home, where you can create a whole bunch of new flavors, all based around a pale, somewhat sweet sausage that’s has a surprisingly addictive edge to it. Bet you can’t eat just one!

I guess about all that’s missing is Nutella. But no matter what’s on the sausage, it’s still, at heart, the same tasty slices of force meat. It’s good, better than you might imagine it to be.

• The Slaw Dogs (720 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena, 626-808-9777; www.theslawdogs.com): It’s surprising to discover that The Slaw Dogs, as iconic a hot dog as we’ve got in the SG Valley, has only been around since. 2010. I would have given it at least another decade, maybe two.

For in its short history, The Slaw Dogs (“California’s Best Gourmet Dogs, Sausages, Brat, Burger and Salads,” say they) has become a fine destination for the Mac ‘n Cheese Dog (with bacon, of course), the ABLT Dog (with avocado and double bacon), and the OG Thai Slaw Dog (peanut butter satay sauce!). You can also build your own, resulting in a nearly infinite number of dogs. (The menu says 47 followed by 18 zeroes!)

They have kimchi sweet potato fries too, with a fired egg and bacon. This place rocks!

• Dodger Dog at Dodger Stadium: I would be remiss not to include the Dodger Dog in any survey of our local dogs. Even more than the dogs at Pink’s, it’s the very essence of iconic, the reason many of us go to a game in the first place.

Oh, sure, baseball is the great American Pastime. But eating a dog at Dodger Stadium is the great American repast. They‘re served steamed or grilled, with grilled being the style loved by those of us with a taste for the way it’s been done since the beginning.

There’s a Super Dodger Dog as well, made of 100-percent beef, rather than 100-percent pork. And yes, they’re made by Farmer John, and you can buy them at your local market, where they’ll cost a lot less than the $6.50 charged at a game. But they’ll never taste as good as they do at Dodger Stadium.